Self-Service Kiosk Growth Soaring, Like It or Not

For those who bemoan the growing ubiquity of self-service kiosks, now is the time to brace yourself. The number of transactions service providers will shunt through these systems will triple in the next four years. Transactions at self-service kiosks will surpass $607bn this year in North America, according to a recently released study by the IHL Group. By 2012, that number will have reached more than $1.7tr.Much of this trend is fueled by service providers who like the cost-benefit ratio of installing a kiosk, says Greg Buzek, president of the IHL Group. However, besides dollar savings, he says, these companies also insist they deliver customer satisfaction gains.He points to another IHL study as illustration; it showed that airlines such as Southwest, Northwest and Delta claim that as much as 70 percent of all passengers prefer to use these kiosks for check-in.Source: CRM Buyer, http://crmbuyer.com